1894
Year 1894 (MDCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). Events of 1894 January - March : Fire damages Columbian Exposition.]] * January 7 - W.K. Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film. * January 8 - A fire at the 1893-1894 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago causes a good deal of damage. * January 9 - New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard (Lexington). * February 15 - 04:51 GMT, French anarchist Martial Bourdin attempts to destroy the Royal Greenwich Observatory, London, England with a bomb. * March 1 - Thomas McGreevy, Canadian politician and contractor, is released from prison after serving time for defrauding the government. * March 4 - The First Sino-Japanese War: Great fire in Shanghai; over 1,000 buildings are destroyed. * March 12 - For the first time, Coca-Cola is sold in bottles. * March 21 - Syzygy of planets as Mercury transited the Sun as seen from Venus, and Mercury and Venus both simultaneously transited the Sun as seen from Saturn. * End of the rule of chief Touch the Clouds * March 25 - Coxey's Army, the first significant American protest march, departs Massillon for Washington D.C. : Coca-Cola in bottles (copies).]] April - June *May - Outbreak of bubonic plague in the Tai Ping Shan area of Hong Kong. The disease would eventually kill a total of 2,552 people in the territory that year. * May 1 **Coxey's Army arrives in Washington D.C. **May Day Riots of 1894 break out in Cleveland. * May 11 - Pullman Strike: Three thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a "wildcat" (without union approval) strike in Illinois. * May 14 **Meteor shower in Southern France. **Blackpool Tower is opened in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. * May 21 - The Manchester Ship Canal and Docks are opened by Queen Victoria. * June 22 - Dahomey becomes a French colony. * June 23 - International Olympic Committee is founded at the Sorbonne, Paris, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin. * June 24 - Assassination of Sadi Carnot, president of France. * June 30 - Tower Bridge in London opened for traffic. : Blackpool Tower.]] July - September * July 4 - The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole. * August 1 - Declaration of war between the Qing Empire of China and the Empire of Japan, over their rival claims of influence on their common ally, the Joseon Dynasty of Korea. The event marks the start of the first Sino-Japanese War. * August 15 - Sante Geronimo Caserio is executed for the assassination of Marie François Sadi Carnot. * September 1 - Great Hinckley Fire: A forest fire in Hinckley kills more than 450 people. * September 4 - In New York City, 12,000 tailors strike against sweatshop working conditions. October - December * October 1 - The Owl Club of Cape Town, South Africa has its first formal meeting. * October 15 - Alfred Dreyfus is arrested for spying: Dreyfus affair begins. * October 30 - Domenico Menegatti obtains a patent for a procedure to be applied in producing pandoro industrially. : Nicholas II Tsar]] * November 1 - Russian Tsar Alexander III dies and is succeeded by his son Nicholas II. * November 5 - West Palm Beach is incorporated as a city. * December 18 - Women in South Australia become the first in Australia to gain the right to vote and to be elected to Parliament. * December 21 - Mackenzie Bowell becomes Canada's fifth prime minister. * December 22 - French army officer Alfred Dreyfus is convicted of treason in the midst of a European controversy known as the Dreyfus Affair. Undated * Western countries give up their extraterritorial rights in Japan. * Grace Kimmins founds the Guild of the Poor Brave Things. * Kate Chopin writes "The Story of An Hour" (fiction). * National College of Music, London, is founded by the Moss family. * In the US, the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects is founded. * Elyria High School is built, becoming the first chartered high school west of the Allegheny Mountains. Births January - June * January 1 - Satyendra Nath Bose, Indian physicist (d. 1974) * January 20 - Walter Piston, American composer (d. 1976) * January 30 - King Boris III of Bulgaria (d. 1943) * January 31 - Isham Jones, American jazz musician (d. 1956) * February 3 - Norman Rockwell, American artist and illustrator (d. 1978) * February 8 - Ludwig Marcuse, German philosopher (d. 1971) * February 10 - Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1986) * February 11 - Alfonso Leng, Chilean composer (d. 1974) * February 14 - Jack Benny, American actor and comedian (d. 1974) * February 25 - Meher Baba, Avatar of the Age, was born in India (d. 1969) * February 28 - Ben Hecht, American playwright, and film writer (d. 1964) * March 17 - Paul Green, novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (d. 1981) * March 19 - Moms Mabley, American comedienne (d. 1975) *March 30 - Nikolai P. Barabashov, Russian astronomer (d.1971) * April 10 - Shri Ghanshyam Das Birla, Indian industrialist, Gandhian, and educationalist (d. 1983) * April 10 - Ben Nicholson English abstract artist (d. 1982) * April 13 - Arthur Fadden, thirteenth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1973) * April 15 - Bessie Smith, American blues singer (d. 1937) * April 17 - Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, Soviet politician (d. 1971) * April 26 - Rudolf Hess, Nazi official (d. 1987) * April 27 - Nicolas Slonimsky, Russian/American musicologist (d. 1995) * May 11 - Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer (d. 1991) * May 16 - Walter Yust, American encyclopædia editor (d. 1960) * May 20 - Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Maha Swamigal, the Shankaracharya of Kanchi mutt from 1907 to 1994 and a renowqned sage and religious scholar.(d.1994) * May 27 **Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French writer (d. 1961) **Dashiell Hammett, American author (d. 1961) * May 31 - Fred Allen, American comedian (d. 1956) * June 4 - Gabriel Pascal, Hungarian Film Producer (d. 1954) * June 7 - Roy Thomson, Canadian publisher (d. 1976) * June 9 - Nedo Nadi, Italian fencer (d. 1940) * June 14 - Marie-Adélaïde (d. 1924) * June 23 - King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (d. 1972) July - December * July 9 - Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1984) * July 18 - Isaac Babel, Ukrainian writer (d. 1940) * July 19 - Khawaja Nazimuddin, second Prime Minister of Pakistan (d. 1965) * July 26 - Aldous Huxley, English author (d. 1963) * August 3 - Harry Heilmann, baseball player (d. 1951) * August 21 - Katie Harris, folklorist (d. 2001) * August 28 - Karl Böhm, Austrian conductor (d. 1981) * August 28 - Elisha Scott, footballer (d. 1959) * September 2 - Joseph Roth, Austrian writer (d. 1939) * September 7 - George Waggner, American film director, producer, and actor (d. 1984) * September 13 - J. B. Priestley, English novelist and playwright (d. 1984) * September 13 - Julian Tuwim, Polish poet (d. 1953) * September 15 - Jean Renoir, French film director (d. 1979) * September 24 - Tommy Armour, Scottish golfer (d. 1968) * October 5 - Bevil Rudd, South African athlete (d. 1948) * October 7 - Del Lord, Hollywood director (d. 1970) * October 14 - E. E. Cummings, American poet (d. 1962) * October 15 - Moshe Sharett, second Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1965) * October 18 - H. L. Davis, American author (d. 1960) * October 25 - Claude Cahun, French photographer and writer (d. 1954) * October 25 - Aşık Veysel Şatıroğlu, Turkish poet, songwriter and saz player (d. 1973) * November 2 - Alexander Lippisch, German aerodynamics engineer (d. 1976) * November 4 - Chafik Charobim, Egyptian impressionist painter (d. 1975) * November 5 - Harold Innis, Canadian communications scholar. (d. 1952) * November 24 - Herbert Sutcliffe, English cricketer (d. 1978) * November 26 - Norbert Wiener, American mathematician (d. 1964) * November 29 - Lucille Hegamin, American singer and entertainer (d. 1970) * December 5 - Philip K. Wrigley, American chewing gum manufacturer and executive in Major League Baseball (d.1977) * December 8 - James Thurber, American writer (d. 1961) * December 17 - Arthur Fiedler, American conductor (d. 1979) * December 20 - Robert Menzies, twelfth Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1978) *December 22 - Edwin Linkomies, Finnish Prime Minister (d. 1963) * December 26 - Jean Toomer, Poet (d. 1967) : See also 1894 births. Deaths January - June *January 1 - Heinrich Hertz, German physicist (b. 1857) *January 13 - Nadezhda von Meck, patron of Tchaikovsky (b. 1831) *February 4 - Adolphe Sax, Belgian instrument maker, inventor of the saxophone (b. 1814) *February 6 - *February 8 - Robert Michael Ballantyne, Scottish novelist (b. 1825) *March 3 - Ned Williamson, American baseball player (b. 1857) *March 20 - Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian politician (b. 1802) *June 3 - Karl Eduard Zachariae, German jurist and expert on Byzantine law (b. 1812) *June 7 - Hassan I of Morocco (b. 1836) *June 23 - Marietta Alboni, opera singer (b. 1826) *June 25 - Marie François Sadi Carnot, French statesman (b. 1837) (assassinated) July - December *September 13 - Emmanuel Chabrier, composer (b. 1841) *October 20 - James Anthony Froude, historian (b. 1818) *October 30 - Juan Cortina, Mexican folk hero (b. 1824) *November 1 - Tsar Alexander III of Russia (b. 1845) *November 20 - Anton Rubinstein, Russian pianist and composer (b. 1829) *November 25 - Solomon Caesar Malan, Swiss-born orientalist (b. 1812) *December 3 - Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish author (b. 1850) *December 9 - Pafnuty Chebyshev, Russian mathematician (b. 1821) *December 12 - John Sparrow David Thompson, Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1845) *December 28 - Chamaraja Wodeyar, Maharajah of Mysore (b. 1863) : See also 1894 deaths.